trade union

trade union, association of workers in a particular trade, industry, or company created for the purpose of securing improvements in pay, benefits, working conditions, or social and political status through collective bargaining.

Historical development

As an organized movement, trade unionism (also called organized labour) originated in the 19th century in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States. In many countries trade unionism is synonymous with the term labour movement. Smaller associations of workers started appearing in Britain in the 18th century, but they remained sporadic and short-lived through most of the 19th century, in part because of the hostility they encountered from employers and government groups that resented this new form of political and economic activism. At that time unions and unionists were regularly prosecuted under various restraint-of-trade and conspiracy statutes in both Britain and the United States.

While union organizers in both countries faced similar obstacles, their approaches evolved quite differently: the British movement favoured political activism, which led to the formation of the Labour Party in 1906, while American unions pursued collective bargaining as a means of winning economic gains for their workers.

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Legal precedents

British unionism received its legal foundation in the Trade-Union Act of 1871. In the United States the same effect was achieved, albeit more slowly and uncertainly, by a series of court decisions that whittled away at the use of injunctions, conspiracy laws, and other devices against unions. In 1866 the formation of the National Labor Union (NLU) represented an early attempt to create a federation of American unions. Although the NLU disappeared in the 1870s, several of its member trade unions continued, representing such diverse occupations as shoemakers, spinners, coal miners, and railway workers. The founding of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) by several unions of skilled workers in 1886 marked the beginning of a continuous large-scale labour movement in the United States. Its member groups comprised national trade or craft unions that organized local unions and negotiated wages, hours, and working conditions.

Modern developments

During the 20th century, craft unions lost ground to industrial unions. This shift was both historic and controversial because the earliest unions had developed in order to represent skilled workers. These groups believed that unskilled workers were unsuitable for union organization. In 1935, for example, the AFL opposed attempts to organize the unskilled and ultimately expelled a small group of member unions that were attempting to do so. The expelled unions formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which by 1941 had assured the success of industrial unionism by organizing the steel and automobile industries. When the AFL and the CIO merged to form the AFL-CIO in 1955, they represented between them some 15 million workers. At the same time, mass unions began appearing in Britain and several European countries, and before the end of the century the industrial unions—embracing large numbers of unskilled or semiskilled workers—were recognized as powerful negotiating forces.

The strength of the labour movement at any given moment has been linked to general economic conditions. In times of full employment and rising wages, unionism typically loses some of its appeal, particularly among younger workers, while in recessionary times it becomes more attractive. By the end of the 20th century the globalization of the workforce had brought new challenges to the labour movement, effectively weakening collective bargaining in industries whose workers could be replaced by a cheaper labour force in a different part of the world.

In the United States the labour movement was also adversely affected by the movement to implement so-called right-to-work laws, which generally prohibited the union shop, a formerly common clause of labour contracts that required workers to join, or pay service fees to, a union as a condition of employment. Right-to-work laws, which had been adopted in more than half of U.S. states and the territory of Guam by the early 21st century, were promoted by economic libertarians, trade associations, and corporate-funded think tanks as necessary to protect the economic liberty and freedom of association of workers. They had the practical effect of weakening collective bargaining and limiting the political activities of unions by depriving them of funds. Certain other states adopted separate legislation to limit or prohibit collective bargaining or the right to strike by public-sector unions. In Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (2018), the U.S. Supreme Court held that public employees cannot be required to pay service fees to a union to support its collective-bargaining activities on their behalf.

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